HUDSON, N.H., Sept. 7 -- Presstek, Inc., a leading manufacturer and marketer of environmentally responsible high tech digital imaging solutions for the graphic arts and laser imaging markets, and EFI, the world leader in digital imaging and print management solutions for commercial and enterprise printing, today announced a strategic alliance to develop a range of products for the small commercial print market. The companies are collaborating to develop a set of enterprise solutions scaled for smaller quick, commercial and in-plant shops, and the franchise print market. The first product in the extended suite, the Presstek Facet RIP, will be launched at Print 05, North America's largest printing trade show being held at McCormick Place, Chicago, September 9th through 15th, 2005. "We are very pleased to be partnering with an industry-leader like EFI," said Bill Davison, Presstek's Vice President of Corporate Business Development. "The most successful printers have adopted digital technologies and learned how to use them to reduce costs and increase new market opportunities. Yet, until now it has been a challenge to provide truly cost- effective and powerful solutions. This announcement reinforces our commitment to high-performance, affordable digital workflow and business solutions for the small printer." The Presstek Facet RIP is an affordable, high-performance, digital front- end that has been developed for operation with all Presstek- and ABDick- branded digital output devices, including DI presses and Dimension, Vector TX52, and DPM platesetters. The Facet RIP is sold and supported exclusively by Presstek and is the initial product in a portfolio of digital solutions for small print enterprises. It provides the core foundation for adding advanced workflow modules and business management solutions to the operations of small commercial printers. Goodcopy Printing & Digital Graphics in New Haven, CT was one of the first users of Presstek's Facet RIP. David Miller, Goodcopy's prepress manager comments, "We were familiar with the EFI Fiery interface from using the Fiery on our Doc 12. It only seemed natural to implement the Facet RIP once we installed the Presstek Dimension Excel CTP system. The transition was easy, we were up and running quickly with very little training." Miller adds, "The speed, proofing ability, and robustness of the Facet has made us more productive." The Presstek Facet RIP builds on EFI's heritage of providing market- leading imaging and print management solutions. With over 1.2 million Fierys installed worldwide and controlled by EFI's award-winning Command WorkStation interface, the Presstek Facet RIP takes advantage of EFI's unmatched technology, market reputation and ease-of-use. Based on EFI's Adobe CPSI Fiery G210 RIP, the Presstek Facet RIP will be commercially available in the fourth quarter of 2005, and can be configured with a wide range of capabilities, including: * Automatic in-RIP trapping * The ability to quickly and easily re-map spot colors from the desktop without returning to the native application * Advanced proofing and ICC-based color management functionality based on Best Technology * ImageViewer local and remote soft-proofing and color editing capabilities, including real-time pixel-level zoom of a rasterized job before it is committed to the print device * Drag-and-drop hot folders for automation of repetitive tasks * Easy integration with EFI Print MIS solutions, including PrintSmith. Printers can manage their entire digital workflow from the Fiery-based Presstek Facet RIP. Since Facet is built on Fiery technology, it is controlled via the Command WorkStation interface. This is the same familiar interface used by millions of Fiery RIPS around the world. The Fiery Command Workstation, operated from a Mac or PC platform, offers the ability to view and control multiple Fiery based RIPS, including Facet, from remote locations. This allows a customer to move a job from one device to another right from Command WorkStation. Now, with the click of a mouse, a customer can output 10 copies on their digital toner device and 5,000 copies from their DI press without ever going back to their prepress computers. Command Workstation also offers Sort, Search and Archive capability for increased operational flexibility. The Sort function allows jobs to be organized by name, date or print status. The Search function enables operators to quickly locate jobs that were previously printed. And Archive offers the ability to easily save pre-RIPped files to another server or disk for easy retrieval and reprinting as well as for distribute-and-print applications. "We are excited with our expanding relationship with Presstek," said Fred Rosenzweig, EFI's President. "Together, we will be able to more effectively serve the small commercial print market by channeling EFI's unsurpassed development power and market leadership into specific products aligned with Presstek's innovative DI and CTP offerings as well as with other specific needs of this growing market segment." "EFI's industry-leading products are already in an estimated 85% of Presstek's over 18,000 customers," added Davison, "Through this alliance with EFI, Presstek will be able to provide a range of powerful new products that link seamlessly with their current tools and increase customers' productivity and profitability."